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Plans for the new roundabout © Taylor Wimpey

Mauricewood Roundabout Works Begin

Motorists are being warned to expect months of disruption after construction work began on the new Mauricewood Road/A702 roundabout.

It is a day that Penicuik’s commuters have feared for years but on Monday 8 January the project to replace the Mauricewood T-junction on the A702 with a three arm roundabout commenced.

The works, which are required to facilitate the construction of 1000 new dwellings in the town, are set to last six months and feature occasional traffic management and road closures to both Mauricewood Road and the A702 trunk route.

Severe congestion was caused during Monday evening’s rush hour when temporary traffic lights were left on the junction, prompting a southbound queue back to Easter Howgate. Following criticism, the works’ promoters Scottish Water subsequently removed the management during peak hours.

Scottish Water’s roadworks are due to complete Friday 12 January. After this, Taylor Wimpey and their contractor Crummock Scotland will start the road realignment and roundabout construction in earnest. Initially the works will take place away from the two roads but traffic management can’t be ruled out at times.

It is anticipated that Mauricewood Road will close for around 18 weeks (could be up to 22) from March to facilitate the bulk of the works. Traffic management will also feature at the junction between Belwood and Mauricewood Roads.

David Steven, Technical Director for Taylor Wimpey East Scotland said:

We’d like to take this opportunity to apologise in advance for any inconvenience our essential work to upgrade the existing T- junction at the A702 and Mauricewood intersection may cause.

We understand this is a key commuter route and we are fully committed to providing the local community with updates on our progress through future mail-drops and via our website.

Please be assured that we will be working closely with our contractors to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.

We would encourage anyone with questions or concerns to please call 01383 845 700 or email eastscotlandcustomerservices@taylorwimpey.com.

Taylor Wimpey are funding the £4.7M project initially as part of their developer contributions for their Greenlaw Mill development. Its construction is required before fifty homes in the development are occupied. CALA and Avant Homes will also contribute towards the cost after their proposals for north of Deanburn were approved late last year.

At the end of 2017, Taylor Wimpey were forced to implement traffic management on a newly constructed entrance roundabout into their development after it emerged the realignment was too narrow.

Midlothian Council also faced criticism this week for allowing temporary traffic lights on both the A701 and A702 at the same time. The roadworks meant that there was significant congestion on the two arterial routes into Penicuik. People took to social media to ask the council to prevent such occurrences in the future.

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